AN ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH CABLE SECTION
Tiffany & Co. (marketed by)
American: c. 1858
Telegraph cable
4.25 in. long x 5/8 in. diameter
Mounted on custom made later ebonized stand
Section of the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable from 1858, made into a souvenir and sold by Tiffany & Co. It is banded in brass at both ends, with an embossed central brass certification band. The complex core structure is shown by viewing either end.

In 1858, the first complete trans-Atlantic telegraph cable was laid by the ship U.S.S.F. Niagara. The cable was in operation for a short period of time, but then failed. Cyrus W. Field, the promoter of the Atlantic Cable project sold a quantity of unused Atlantic Cable to Tiffany & Co., to be cut into small lengths and sold as souvenirs.
New York inventor and industrialist Peter Cooper (1791-1883) was the first president and a principal investor in the project, along with a group of prominent New York businessmen, including telegraph inventor Samuel F.B. Morse. Cyrus W. Field, the prime mover of the project, took it on a few years after retiring from a successful business career at the age of 40. The massive project of laying miles of undersea cable met with great skepticism from most businessmen, and the practical difficulties resulted in many failed attempts, but eventually Field arranged for the first cable to be sent from Queen Victoria to President James Buchanan in 1858, an event greeted with great popular acclaim. Although the cable broke three weeks later, Field persevered for the next several years, getting additional financing and completing the project in 1866.
Central brass certification band: "ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH CABLE GUARANTEED BY TIFFANY & CO. BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 1858."